Well by the thunderin’ Lord Jesus, hereby hangs a tale. In Holy Old Mackinaw, historian, writer, and former logger Stewart Holbrook spins the saga of the American lumberjack, charting a century’s journey from the forests of New England, through the Midwest, and to the final primeval bastion of Oregon. Interspersed with this history are accounts of semi-mythical figures in lumberjack lore and snippets of life in the camps, from the food to the songs to the spartan conditions of the bunkhouses. There are technical descriptions, too, where Holbrook recounts the painstaking process of felling trees, dragging them over open country and fluming then downriver to mills where they are made into lumber.
While Holbrook doesn’t undersell the challenges of the job—rough weather and rougher living conditions, long hours with meagre pay, a deep and panging loneliness—there is an undeniable romance and affection in his telling that makes his love of this lifestyle and the men who lead it clear. This is especially clear in the books final pages, where he opines the dying of this strange and noble breed of man, tragic victims of their own industry. It’s funny and a bit jarring to read Holbrook’s lamentations on a changing society and comparisons between the lumberjack of lore and the modern woodsman, only to realize the modern era he’s discussing is nearly 100 years old.
Holbrook tells it all in colourful prose, with rich images and sly irony. This is a book rich with history, but it is by no means a dry academic tome. Highly recommended for anyone with even a passing interest in an often overlooked but essential aspect of Europe’s colonizing of the west.